These easy sourdough gingerbread muffins are soft, warmly spiced and full of classic gingerbread flavor. They’re made with sourdough discard and simple pantry ingredients, with no fermentation or waiting required. Once cooled, I drizzle them with a simple white sugar glaze that looks like freshly fallen snow, making them an easy but beautiful bake for Christmas mornings, holiday brunches or winter baking.
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Why you’ll love this recipe!
Pantry-Friendly – Everything you need is likely already sitting in your pantry, making these perfect for spontaneous holiday baking.
No Waiting – Use sourdough discard straight from the fridge. Baking powder provides the lift, so there’s no fermentation required.
Classic Gingerbread Flavor – Molasses and warm spices give you that unmistakable gingerbread taste without making the muffins overly complicated. They’re perfect for an easy winter breakfast, holiday brunch or even as an alternative to cookies for a holiday bake exchange.
Snowy Holiday Glaze – The simple powdered sugar and water glaze dries white over the tops of the muffins, giving them a beautiful wintery finish without needing frosting or decorating skills.
Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – You can use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard to make this recipe. Because these are sweet gingerbread muffins, avoid using discard that is very acidic or overly sour, as it can overpower the warm spices and molasses.
- All-Purpose Flour – You can substitute up to half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour for a nuttier, deeper flavor.
- Eggs
- Dark Brown Sugar – You can use light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar will give you a deeper caramel flavor.
- Molasses – This provides the deep color and signature gingerbread flavor. I recommend regular or dark molasses rather than blackstrap, which can be much more bitter.
- Baking Powder – I’ve used baking powder only in this recipe, with no baking soda.
- Melted Butter – I’ve used salted butter, but unsalted butter is also fine.
- Whole Milk
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Gingerbread Spice Mix – I’ve used ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves and cardamom.
- Powdered Sugar – This is needed for the snowy white glaze that is drizzled on after the muffins have cooled.
How To Make Sourdough Gingerbread Muffins
Like most sourdough muffin recipes, these sweet sourdough gingerbread muffins are really easy to make.
In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients, making sure the eggs and sourdough discard are well combined.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl ensuring they are well distributed before adding them to the wet ingredients. Gently mix everything together, taking care not to over mix so the muffins stay soft and tender. A few small streaks of flour are fine, but you don’t want any large pockets of flour or unmixed spices.
Evenly divide the muffin batter between the holes of your muffin pan. I’ve used a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the batter in these photos.
Bake until the muffins are risen and golden brown, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, drizzle with the simple sugar glaze and allow it to set before serving.
What Do Sourdough Gingerbread Muffins Taste Like?
These muffins have a soft, tender crumb with deep caramel notes from the molasses and plenty of warming gingerbread spice. The sourdough discard adds a subtle tang that balances the sweetness rather than making them taste sour. The glaze adds just the right amount of sweetness to the top of the muffins, but they are also delicious without it.
How To Make the Snowy Gingerbread Glaze
Once the muffins are completely cool, mix the powdered sugar with around three-quarters of the water called for in the recipe. Add the remaining water a little at a time until you reach the right consistency.
The trick is to keep the glaze fairly thick. You want it to fall slowly from the spoon and sit visibly on top of the muffins rather than disappearing into them.
Kate’s Recipe testing notes
Simple Sugar Glaze
I deliberately kept the glaze to just powdered sugar and water. Lemon juice or milk will also work, but water keeps the glaze bright white and gives the muffins that snowy winter finish I wanted.
Gingerbread Spice Mix
These muffins use a blend of ground spices to create their classic gingerbread flavor. I use ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and cardamom, which is a similar mix to the one I use in these sourdough gingerbread cookies and sourdough gingerbread rolls.
You don’t need fresh ginger for this recipe. Ground ginger gives you the warm, concentrated flavor you want in gingerbread and is an easy pantry staple to keep on hand. If you don’t have allspice or cardamom, simply leave them out. The ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves will still give you plenty of classic gingerbread flavor.
How To Store and Freeze
Store these sourdough gingerbread muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
They also freeze really well. For the best results, freeze the muffins without the glaze in a freezer-safe bag or container. Allow them to thaw completely at room temperature, then add the snowy glaze before serving.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Make-Ahead Tip
Because they freeze so well, these sourdough gingerbread muffins are perfect for getting a little Christmas baking done ahead of time. They’re lovely for Christmas morning, a holiday brunch or packing up to take along to a festive gathering.
Freeze them unglazed for up to 3 months, then thaw on the counter at room temperature while still in the bag. Once fully thawed, drizzle with the snowy glaze just before serving for that fresh-from-the-kitchen finish.
Sourdough Gingerbread Muffins
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Digital Scales
- 12 hole muffin pan
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 200 g Sourdough Discard
- 2 Eggs
- 85 g Milk
- 50 g Molasses
- 100 g Butter
- 5 g Vanilla Extract
Dry Ingredients
- 180 g All-purpose Flour
- 100 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 8 g Baking Powder
- 5 g Salt
- 6 g Ground Ginger, (3 tsp)
- 4 g Ground Cinnamon, (2 tsp)
- ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 3 g Allspice, (1 tsp)
- ½ tsp Ground Cloves
- ⅓ tsp Ground Cardamom
Snowy Glaze
- 150 g Powdered Sugar
- 30 g Water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF and grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter or use paper liners.
- Mix the sourdough discard, 2 eggs, milk, molasses, melted butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Whisk together until well combined.
- In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients before adding them into the liquid ingredients.
- Gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together to create a thick, scoopable muffin batter.
- Scoop the mixture evenly into a 12 hole muffin tray.
- Bake at 180ºC/350ºF for approximately 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Once the muffins are cooled, mix together the water and powdered sugar to create a thick glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the muffins and allow to set for around 10 minutes. before serving them.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
These sound delicious. Can I ferment the batter overnight in the fridge so the flour is fully fermented? I have had luck with doing this for a couple other muffin recipes from another sourdough site.
Has anyone tried this method?
Could I add blueberries to this recipe? If so how many? Thank you
absolutely 🙂
Hi! A good substitute for molasses?
Could you add small amount apples ?If so how much ?
can I make gingerbread in a loaf pan instead of muffins?
Can this dough be fermented in the refrigerator and baked the next day? (Digestive problems here.😒) If so, at which point would I place in the refrigerator? Thank you.
You can, but you will find that the muffins don’t rise as high. These sourdough gingerbread cookies can be fermented for up to 2 days and taste incredible. They might be a good alternative 🙂
I don’t know how many times I bake these muffins!?!?They are so delicious! I sometimes reduce sugar to half and put sugar graze on the top of muffin so that people still can taste sweetness:) Without placing parchiment paper, it won’t stick to the mold. (But other of your muffin recipes, which uses butter, they DO need.)
I just made half a batch of these delicious gingerbread muffings.
I really appreciate how ingredients are listed by weight—that saves me time which I would have spent converting.
I added chopped dark chocolalte and used a bit more spice as my spices aren’t the freshest.
The muffins were a little small so I’ll just add a little of the main ingredients to beef them up.
Thanks for reconfiguring the recipe. I had printed the old version out and made them but the ingredients list was hard to follow. I love how you grouped the wet ingredients and the dry ones together and I love how you now allow the recipe to be halved (or doubled).
Well done!
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you love the refresh 🙂 I’m trying to do this across all the recipes across the site, slowly but surely 🙂 Enjoy and thank you so much for being here 🙂 xo